refugees
Fewer asylum applications – border controls remain in place for the time being
About three-fifths of asylum applications filed in 2024 came from three main countries of origin – Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey. photo
© Uli Deck/dpa
Fewer people applied for asylum in February than a year ago. Faeser hopes that the EU asylum reform will be implemented relatively quickly. She still believes internal border controls are necessary.
In January and February 2023, a total of 54,333 people in Germany submitted an initial application for asylum. In January and February of this year there were 47,090, 7,243 fewer than in the previous year, according to the Federal Office’s statistics published on Thursday. The February number of initial applications is the lowest in a month since September 2022.
Faeser’s reasons for the decline
“We have really done more in the last few months than in the last few years to achieve a strong limitation on irregular migration,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) to the German Press Agency. These included the planned reform of the Common European Asylum Policy, national legal changes – for example to make deportations easier – and the ordering of additional controls at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland last October.
When asked how long these controls, initially planned until mid-June, should continue, the minister said: “They will be necessary at least as long as we have no other options for limiting them.” Only the reforms planned at EU level with procedures at the external borders for certain groups and a different distribution could permanently reduce the number of unauthorized entries. “We hope that this will happen faster than we all think,” said Faeser. The Commission will present an implementation plan in May.
Sharp decline in people from Afghanistan
Around three fifths of the asylum applications submitted since the beginning of the year came from the three main countries of origin: Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey. 14,024 first-time applicants came from Syria alone, a decrease of 12.8 percent compared to the previous year. Initial applications from people from Afghanistan fell by 38.9 percent from 10,924 to 6,679. On the other hand, applications from people from Turkey increased – from 6,809 in the previous year to 7,649. According to the Federal Office, in 2024, 2,786 of the first-time applicants were in Germany children born less than one year old.
According to the Federal Office, decisions were made on 54,705 initial applications in the first two months of the year. 86.5 percent of the applications from Syria were approved – meaning that protection status was granted. For applicants from Afghanistan, the rate was 67.1 percent. Only 7.8 percent of asylum seekers from Turkey received protection status. Overall, the protection rate across all countries of origin was 45 percent – that is, more than half of asylum seekers are rejected.